Live from #TPIAspen: What to expect, and what you missed — Latest on Comcast-TWC — Congress grapples with email security — Wyden on privacy

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GOOD MORNING FROM ASPEN, CO., where your veteran MT'er, Tony, is live from the Technology Policy Institute's annual confab. We're here for the next two days with government regulators and company leaders and more, all assembled to chat privacy and security and 'net governance and net neutrality — except, it's happening from atop a mountain instead of a stuffy congressional hearing room back in D.C. Whether you're here or at home, don't worry, I got y'all covered. Say hello in person if you can, or shoot over those comments and tips to tromm@politico.com or @tonyromm.

—TPI OPENS: TIPTON TALKS TECH: Rep. Scott Tipton served a pretty heavy helping of conservative red meat during his speech last night to kick off the conference. The congressman, whose third district in Colorado includes a pretty healthy portion of the state, blasted Washington and the growing federal debt and more as he trained his sites on onerous federal "rules and regulations," and their cost — and he touted a Republican-backed bill that expands congressional authority to oversee agencies' work. Sill, Tipton touted the need to expand "broadband to all our communities," especially rural areas, which he said would help incubate more jobs and economic opportunity.

—WHAT ABOUT SURVEILLANCE? Sure, the House passed its bill, and the Senate has some work to do if it hopes to rein in the NSA before year's end. Asked about the odds, with the 2014 legislative calendar nearing its conclusion, Tipton didn't offer the most optimistic assessment: "This is something I'm a big proponent of," he stressed before adding: "We've got a number of issues, it's something I hope we'll take a real look at … "

—WHAT'S ON TAP TODAY: PCAST chief Marjory Blumenthal, FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen and others chat at 9 a.m. local time about privacy and big data, a notable panel given the White House's recent report on the issue … FTC Commissioner Julie Brill, WH cyber chief Michael Daniel and industry leaders kick it at a conversation on cybersecurity at about 11 a.m … and the big keynote tonight is Comcast's David Cohen, who starts speaking around 7 p.m. local time. (We'll be covering this and more on POLITICO, Pro and in Morning Tech.)

THINGS HAPPENING NOT ON A MOUNTAIN:

A NEW WRINKLE IN COMCAST-TWC — Shalini Ramachandran reports in today's WSJ: "As the Federal Communications Commission reviews Comcast Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc., one issue it has to decide is whether to allow Comcast to continue TWC's long-standing arrangement to handle programming and technology acquisitions for the sixth-biggest cable operator, Bright House Networks. The issue is complicated. Allowing the deal to continue would give Comcast even more scale in programming negotiations, but blocking it could raise costs for Bright House and potentially its customers." http://on.wsj.com/1vZAAFd

CONGRESS GIVES EMAIL SERVICE A SECURITY ULTIMATUM — House staffers are issuing a strong message to the company that provides email services for several dozen Hill offices: Get your security in line, or you're done. Team Cyber's Tal Kopan has the story: "The issues with the vendor, iConstituent, stem back to July 2013, when the hacktivist collective Anonymous breached a database of old logins for House staffers and posted them online. While the company says it has been working to address those concerns, House officials say there still remain questions about the security of its services — and its contract is up at the end of the year," she writes. "One staff member whose office uses the services and was in the room on Thursday said the staffers were given 'a list of issues' [House officials have] noted with the company, including what has been rectified and what hasn't." The House has until Dec. 3 to renew the contract or give iConstituent notice that its services will not be continued. Read the rest: http://politico.pro/1pV0OTn

WHICH TECH EXEC SPENT THE WEEKEND IN FERGUSON? — That'd be Twitter's Jack Dorsey, a St. Louis native, who at one point tweeted: "I'll be standing with everyone in Ferguson all weekend #HandsUpDontShoot.) Mashable has more, plus the Vines he posted: http://on.mash.to/1qhJ8Pm

YOUR D.C. WEEK AHEAD — Officials from DHS and DARPA will talk cybersecurity Wednesday at a Government Executive panel. A day later, NSA Compliance Director John DeLong and others will speak at a Fedscoop conference on lowering the cost of federal IT. … And: R St Institute hosts an event to discuss public policy and regulation issues around startups.

ICYMI, SEN. RON WYDEN LAYS OUT FRAMEWORK FOR PRIVACY — The Oregon Democrat devoted his speech in Portland late Friday to laying out the case for the "third-party doctrine," the notion that "when people provide information to a particular company, with an agreement that the information will not be made public, those people have not waived their privacy rights," Wyden said. Translated: Consumers who share data with Facebook, Google, Mint, Uber, Instagram or others aren't tacitly consenting to making that sensitive information public.

—Wyden then pivoted to calling for FISA reform, through the end of bulk collection and new surveillance court-focused revisions, as well as a return to the debates over ECPA and GPS location privacy. Of course, none of these struggles is new — they've long been stuck in Congress — and the senator acknowledged as much in his speech. "Together we're going to have to construct and build out a new legal framework that demonstrates privacy and innovation are not mutually exclusive," Wyden said. "This new framework isn't going to be built in a day, and this outdated doctrine about people waiving their privacy rights when they share personal information with private companies isn't going to be overturned overnight. It's going to take some time, and it's going to take a lot of work by a lot of people."

NELSON TO CARRIERS: ARE YOU READY FOR THE STORMS? — Florida Sen. Bill Nelson wrote to the four major wireless carriers Friday to ask how each is implementing the FCC's rules on 911 reliability. The rules, among other things, require that carriers have backup power sources at offices serving 911 call centers as well as alternate circuits for 911 calls.

—"I believe that the rules adopted by the FCC will help improve people's ability to reach public safety officials when the need them most," Nelson wrote. "I therefore request that you provide my office with the status of your efforts to implement each of these requirements within the state of Florida." The full letter is here: http://politico.pro/1pV0dRP

HAWAII, ILLINOIS TOP LIST OF STATES WITH THE BEST PUBLIC DATASETS — Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah also lead the pack when it comes to who has the best policies — and histories — of sharing data they've collected on issues like education, healthcare and public safety, according to a new report from ITIF's Center for Data Innovation. "By releasing open data, government agencies can foster data-driven innovation not only within government, but also among private-sector organizations and individuals who can make use of these data sets," the report says. Catch the full paper here:http://bit.ly/Vsg4vY

SPEED READ:

—"GOOGLE GOES DARPA": That's the readout from Fortune, which details the search giant's skunkworks lab run by a former DARPA leader. http://bit.ly/1rvtD88

—THE "TOOTHBRUSH TEST," and how top tech giants evaluate their next mergers, via the NYT: http://nyti.ms/1uL0Dyp